Lack of awareness towards smoking-related health risks, symptoms related to COPD, and attitudinal factors concerning smoking: an Internet-based survey conducted in a random sample of the Danish general population

Background: Although chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality globally, several studies have shown little awareness of COPD in the general population. The awareness of COPD in the Scandinavian countries is, however, sparsely investigated. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the awareness in the general Danish population of smoking-related health risks and symptoms related to COPD and attitudinal factors concerning smoking. Design: Adults aged 18 years or older were randomly selected to reflect the background population. An Internet-based questionnaire was conducted in January–February 2015. Results: A total of 1002 answered the questionnaire (515 males; 487 females). In total, 17.7% were current smokers (men: 15.5%–women: 19.9%). More smokers and ex-smokers knew the symptoms of COPD compared to never-smokers (p < 0.001). Ex-smokers had undergone more pulmonary function tests than smokers and never-smokers (p < 0.001) and significantly more men than women who had undergone pulmonary function test. Ex-smokers were more likely to rate cancer as the most feared disease (p = 0.026) than the smokers. Of the smokers, 28% did not regard COPD as a deadly disease and significantly more smokers than ex-/never-smokers believed that smoking cessation should not be mandatory before treatment of COPD and asthma (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Overall, smokers, ex-, and never-smokers had little knowledge of COPD regarding aetiology, symptoms, and severity thus emphasizing the necessity of early detection of COPD and more focus on spirometry in general practice, especially amongst smokers. There is a great discrepancy between the attitude of smokers and ex-/never-smokers towards mandatory smoking cessation before receiving treatment of smoking-related diseases. Funding: GlaxoSmithKline Pharma A/S Brøndby, financially supported the collecting of data by Voxmeter A/S. The authors had full access to the raw data and did not receive any financially support.